Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF161-017

Description

To address the Air Force need to detect the earliest stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in an aircrafts life cycle, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Corrosion Stress Assessment (COSTA) method and system. It is based on innovative combination of in-situ thermal strain monitoring, allowing detection of strength anomalies, and measurement of hydrogen concentration level, which accompanies earliest SCC formation. The COSTA will also enable detection of existing cracks, and evaluate crack growth rate in situ and in real time. The standalone COSTA system operates on both painted and unpainted structures and needs a few minutes to inspect a 1x1 ft area. The lightweight and compact system can be used for condition-based maintenance on military aircraft, which directly addresses the Air Force requirements. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of the COSTA method and system through modeling, simulation, design, development, risk evaluation, and testing of a bench-top prototype reaching technology readiness level (TRL)-3. In Phase II, POC plans to develop a full-scale system prototype that enables automatic detection and analysis of the earliest SCC formation and existing SCC found on validated and verified stress corrosion specimens, reaching TRL-5.